I'd like to see comments and webmentions integrated into RSS readers, myself.

That way filtering can be done on the client-side, and users aren't so dependent on the community admin to do the filtering. Not sure the final architecture. Forums are still highly centralized.

Cryptopanic.com is an interesting site with a baseline look and feel and comments integrated so something like that but running locally. Then an easy way to "mark as bot" button for training.

If they become smart and insightful and don't lie about being human it wouldn't be the worst thing. I'd like having AI friends like Data on Star Trek. But the opposite is the worst thing...

That bot needs more practice though. It didn't even get what it replied to.

I would propose July 2024 as the cutoff; early on it was unusual to just set an LLM loose to run amok on a forum. I'm sure state actors and some corporations were experimenting with it (e.g., Ultralytics on their own GitHub), but it was usually very obvious (or very subtle) and the volume of the noise has only picked up recently.

Date picked based on this Trends page: https://trends.google.com/explore?q=agentic&date=all&geo=Wor...

Of course I'm biased, having an account created after November 2022.

I guess you consider the Redditors that migrated here during that time frame due to the “api fiasco” to be bots.

I assume with enough accounts that look legitimate, they can shape overall "consensus" opinion on something, which would be valuable for all sorts of reasons. Some of those reasons being obvious (promoting a particular product or service) but others being more subtle ("manufacturing consent" for, say, a war in the middle east on behalf of some group)

We all like to think we're independent thinkers, but when seemingly everyone has an opinion a certain way... it would still, at least subconsciously, sway the average person.